The Frost School of Music is turning 100. And Maestro Gerard Schwarz is commemorating this landmark birthday with the gift of new music.
The illustrious conductor and orchestral leader has commissioned a series of centennial compositions by Frost School faculty and renowned outside composers, which the Frost Symphony Orchestra (FSO) will perform to celebrate the school completing its first century.
The series kicks off October 19th, when Schwarz will lead the FSO in associate composition professor Dorothy Hindman’s “Undefeated” as part of their Trails and Trials program.
“I thought there was no better way to celebrate the centennial of the school than with the commission of new works,” said Schwarz. But instead of looking back, he chose to showcase the Frost School’s ambition and optimism for the future.
“One of the great opportunities with anniversaries is to look forward,” said Schwarz. “We evaluate where we are and who we are. Then we dream about where we want to be and who we want to be.”
The series was partly inspired by the enthusiastic response Schwarz received for commissioning five new works for the 50th anniversary season of the Palm Beach Symphony, where he is the music director. But mostly, he wanted to demonstrate the Frost School’s quality and capacity to affect the music world – and to amplify Dean Shelton G. Berg’s belief in the institution.
“He wants the Frost School to get the recognition it deserves,” said Schwarz. “One of the ways you do that is by making sure what you’re doing is important and noticed.”
Integral to that mission is featuring the breadth of talent among Frost School professors. “Within our faculty, we have so many gifted creative artists from so many areas of the music world,” Schwarz said.
Hindman’s participation highlights the composition department. (Schwarz has previously commissioned composition professors Lansing McCloskey and Charles Mason.) He invited jazz studies professor Etienne Charles after attending the multimedia work Charles created for the New York Philharmonic and the re-opening of Lincoln Center’s Geffen Hall; that piece is slated for February 8. He has also invited Carlos Rafael Rivera, the media studies chair who has won multiple awards for his film and television soundtracks. (Rivera’s participation is still pending.)
Schwarz drew on his long career and extensive connections for outside commissions, demonstrating the Frost School’s ability to attract leading classical music artists. The first is Pulitzer Prize-winning vocal and orchestral composer Paul Moravec, whose piece will be performed on March 29. The pieces by Bernard Rands, another Pulitzer winner who has taught at the Juilliard School and Yale University; and Augusta Read Thomas, a longtime former composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony and Pulitzer finalist, will be presented in the fall of 2025. All the pieces are under ten minutes long.
“These three composers are each remarkable, and they’re close personal friends,” said Schwarz. “As friends, they accepted this commission to give us at Frost this great opportunity to premiere their works.”
Hindman called her commission “a truly unexpected honor.” A native Miamian and ‘double Cane’ with both a bachelor’s and a doctorate from the Frost School, Hindman is gratified at the chance to pay tribute to the school that has shaped her life and musical mission.
“This commission brings me full circle,” said Hindman. “As a young composer, UM and the faculty here helped me find my purpose and prepared me. I have devoted thirty years since to inspiring young composers and musicians by teaching composition and music theory. Now, UM has given me another opportunity to keep fulfilling my dreams by composing a new piece for orchestra.”
Hindman’s piece is inspired by her students and community – and her lifelong Hurricanes football fandom. She started going to games as an undergrad when the team was led by legendary coach Jimmy Johnson – inspiring the “Undefeated” title - and has kept going, along with her family, ever since.
This led to a more emotional piece than Hindman’s usual abstract work.
“As I was composing "Undefeated," it was mainly the students I have devoted much of my life to, and the community I was born in and have experienced so much with, that were at the forefront of my thoughts,” Hindman said. “I wanted to give the musicians something they would enjoy playing and would show them off, and to give the audience something they could connect with their own experience.”
“I can’t capture 100 years in a 6-minute piece of music. But I hope to capture something of what it means to be a ‘Cane.”
Gerard Schwarz will lead the Frost Symphony Orchestra performing Hindman's "Undefeated" and other works in the Trails and Trials program at 7:30pm on Saturday, October 19th at Gusman Concert Hall.
